Monday marked the 20th annual World AIDS Day. And to "commemorate" the occasion, President George W. Bush received a P.E.A.C.E.medal from mega-church Pastor Rick Warren for his work combating the epidemic, reports Mother Jones' Tay Wiles. In my latest piece in RH Reality Check, I discuss how the newly-minted medals are part of Warren's campaign to insinuate himself into the mainstream AIDS-fighting movement, nationally and internationally.

President-Elect Barack Obama chose to release his pre-recorded World AIDS Day speech at Warren's ceremony while George Bush personally accepted the medal. In his pre-recorded remarks, Obama stressed the need for "partnerships" between the government and religious groups in the fight against AIDS. Should we worry if some of our most powerful "partners" oppose key tenets of science-based AIDS control strategy?

Speaking of anti-science propaganda, watch Amanda Marcotte of RH Reality debunking some anti-choice propaganda about condoms. http://www.vimeo.com/2211143

Birth control in a Frito? Andrew Leonard notes in Salon that a new study purports to show that mice fed for generations on agribusiness giant Monsanto's genetically modified corn are less fertile. The PR war is in full-swing with Greenpeace sounding the alarm and Monsanto retrenching. Monsanto has a legitimate point, the study-like claims about douching with Diet Coke and doing it standing up-hasn't been peer reviewed.

In healthcare political news, a huge coalition of progressive and union forces is gearing up for a massive battle over healthcare, Alexander Zaitchik reports for AlterNet. They're called Health Care for America Now and their goal is to win a "guarantee of quality, affordable health care for all by the end of 2009."

If you think that plan is a long shot, Dean Baker pushes back in The American Prospect against those who say that healthcare reform is good, but that it's too expensive right now. Baker contends that healthcare reform spending should be part of the economic stimulus package, where we expect to borrow money now to get the economy going again:

In fact, the government is planning a large-scale stimulus package where it is looking for areas in which it can usefully spend money. If health care reform would require an initial increase in spending, before subsequent savings could be achieved, then it would be an obvious target for the stimulus. The Post should have noted that Grassley's claim about the lack of money for such an investment is contradicted by the vast majority of economists from both political parties.

There's an old healthcare saying, "Don't call a surgeon unless you want an operation." MaiaSzalavitz weighs in on the next Obama nomination front and says don't call a Drug Czar unless you want a drug war:

Historically, our czars have actively opposed sensible drug policy: They have gone on crusades against medical marijuana, interfered in state initiatives aimed at promoting treatment over punishment, and most notoriously, stopped President Clinton from letting his HHS secretary legalize federal funding for needle exchange when the data was incontrovertible that it helps fight AIDS and doesn't increase drug use.

Moving on to the legal drugs. The results of ALLHAT, one of the largest comparative studies of high blood pressure drugs in history, are in. ALLHAT was a clinical trial that could have been a reality TV show: $130,000,000, 42,000 patients, 4 drugs. Which would emerge victorious from the ALLHATBlood Pressure Cage Match of Science?!

The winner was the humble diuretic, one of those old, cheap drugs that make you pee a lot. You'd think think diuretic sales would be booming, now that they're proven to work better and cost less than the alternative. Yet, as Ezra Klein notes in the Prospect, sales have only gone up a couple points because the manufacturers of the more expensive drugs have already started spinning, cajoling and working the refs to distract from the results of a study that proved their products suck. Says a lot about our profit-driven healthcare system, doesn't it?

Other news from the world of medicine: A revolutionary new stem cell-based treatment restored a Spanish woman's windpipe, Jonathan Stein reports in Mother Jones.

And last but not least, in a society where black children don't necessarily get a lot of positive media attention Sasha and Malia Obama have become national icons, brimming with health and vitality.Juleyka Lantigua of The Progressive hopes that their example will motivate Americans to ensure that every child can be as healthy as the Obama's beloved daughters.

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